A long-term radical review of staffing in Accident & Emergency (A&E) departments in England is needed after a report by healthcare staff provider HCL Workplace Solutions revealed the reliance of A&E departments on locum doctors.

The report entitled ‘The Real Emergency in Emergency Departments’ found that in some hospitals four in 10 doctors are locums, with some 40% of weekday staff at the A&E departments of University Hospitals Coventry and Warwickshire NHS Trusts being temporary locums.

The report warns that the cost of using locums is far more expensive than using NHS staff, in some cases costing three times as much per patient. 

In a press release, HCL says that in some cases locums were being sourced from outside the national framework agreements “opening the system to unscrupulous agencies who were making headline profits at the NHS’s expense”.

The report also highlights increased restrictions since December 2012 on non-EU doctors coming to work in the UK, and warns that this could “choke off” further supply. 

Liz Bickley, managing director of HCL Doctors, says: “With over 21m attendances recorded at A&E centres in England last year and growing, we see no realistic reduction in demand in the short or medium term, yet at the same time we are seeing a real crisis in medical staffing… a long-term radical review of emergency medical staffing is needed.”